{"id":453079,"date":"2025-09-26T15:17:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T15:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/453079\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T15:17:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T15:17:13","slug":"this-abandoned-london-airport-used-to-be-the-largest-in-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/453079\/","title":{"rendered":"This Abandoned London Airport Used To Be The Largest In The World"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"The
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCredit: Matt Brown via Flickr \/ CC BY 2.0<\/p>\n

When considering the capital\u2019s international airport offerings<\/strong>; there are really only a few big names that spring to mind. Gatwick<\/a>? Sure. Heathrow<\/a>? Absolutely. London City<\/a>? Why not? Luton and Stanstead? Ugh, if I absolutely have to, I guess. A name that doesn\u2019t tend to spring to mind quite so easily, however, is Croydon<\/strong>. In fact, aside from whizzing past it on route to Gatwick, Croydon<\/a> isn\u2019t a place I\u2019d associate with air travel at all. But that hasn\u2019t always been the case, folks. Quite the opposite, actually. Croydon was once the largest airport in the whole world<\/strong>, and played a pivotal role in the development of air travel. Yes, really\u2026<\/p>\n

Croydon Airport <\/p>\n

The trailblazing transport hub was opened in 1920 by Imperial Airlines<\/strong> (Britain\u2019s first national airline). It began by offering flights to various European cities, but it wasn\u2019t long before it started operating flights to the likes of India, East Asia and Africa<\/strong>. Croydon Airport had quite the record-breaking beginning. It was home to the world\u2019s first purpose-built terminal, the world\u2019s first air traffic control tower, and the world\u2019s first airport hotel<\/a>. It also boasts some fairly impressive claims to fame<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"AnCredit: Matt Brown via Flickr \/ CC BY 2.0 <\/p>\n

Croydon airport offered flying lessons, and (among others) saw both Winston Churchill and Amy Johnson<\/strong> take to the sky. In fact, Johnson took off from Croydon Airport to become the first woman to fly solo to Australia. So, yes \u2013 it really was a pretty big deal.<\/p>\n

During World War II<\/strong>, Croydon Airport acted as a Royal Air Force station, and was heavily bombed. Following the war, Croydon was unable to expand to meet the demand of British air travel, and that\u2019s when the London Airport (the spot that would later be known as Heathrow) came and somewhat stole its thunder.<\/p>\n

London Airport opened in 1946<\/strong>, and steadily continued to expand. It was renamed Heathrow<\/strong> Airport in 1966, and \u2013 well \u2013 the rest is history, really. The final flight took off from Croydon Airport<\/strong> on September 30, 1959 \u2013 and it\u2019s now another forgotten fragments of London\u2019s intricate transport tapestry.<\/p>\n

\"TheCredit: Matt Brown via Flickr \/ CC BY 2.0 Visiting Croydon Airport <\/p>\n

Croydon Airport\u2019s primary structures still remain in place to this very day. And despite Londoners no longer being able to hop on a flight there; they can pay still the aviation hub a visit. Croydon Airport\u2019s visitor centre opens to the public on the first Sunday of every month<\/strong>, allowing Londoners (and beyond) to have a nosey around it, and learn more about the fascinating history of this pioneering airport<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Tours must be booked in advance, and you can find out more and plan your visit here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Matt Brown via Flickr \/ CC BY 2.0 When considering the capital\u2019s international airport offerings; there are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,4884,2348,10762,257,10763,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-453079","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-history","12":"tag-international-trip","13":"tag-london","14":"tag-trip-travel","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115271266821331047","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}